Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges


For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.

And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

December 15, 2006: More unbuilding of Grace

The worksite

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and elevator

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A Sparky art photo of the elevator and Manny's skill

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and a C-17 looking over the job

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more looking

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Next - remove the edge girder - here attaching the support cables

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Next

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Starting to cut the top

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Using position 3 of the Nugget classification scheme

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Cut almost complete

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Cutting through the back side

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Then Manny starts his lifting

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Now the balancing act

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and down

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and down

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and down

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and Manny in the serious work position: position #42 on the Nugget scale

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and gently laying it down

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One segment gone

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An example of position 8 on the Nugget scale - the sitting position

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Wrapping the cables around the other girder

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The a back hand cut

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and a prone position cut

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and the final cut

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Lift and separate - just like the tv ad

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Navigate away from the structure

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and up a bit

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and rotate over the top of the structure

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and safely resting

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and Sparky art

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a happy Manny

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Both sides completed

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and Sparky catching the sun saying bye bye

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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